Surprising Player Tops NFL Salaries

Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning and Tom Brady got many of the NFL headlines a year ago, but it was a mostly unknown, Carolina Panthers defensive end Charles Johnson, who led the way in overall pro football compensation. Johnson earned a stunning $34 million during the 2011 season, the first of a six-year, $72 million contract.

That's all the more impressive when you consider the average NFL fan has no idea what he looks like.

Aside from Johnson, ESPN released a list of the top paid athletes in 31 sports based on salaries and or prize money from 2011. These large sums of money don't include all the extra cash athletes earned from endorsements, appearances and sponsorship deals.

So outside of baseball's Alex Rodriguez ($30,000,000) and the NBA's Kobe Bryant ($25,244,000), who cashed in among the lesser-known athletes?